Unlike Alabama And Brian Kelly, Notre Dame And Marcus Freeman Could Have Beaten Ohio State

The Notre Dame beatdown that nearly wasn’t Monday night in Atlanta against Ohio State during the College Football Playoff national championship game looked so familiar for the Fighting Irish.

Then again, maybe not.

Well, definitely not, and not just because Notre Dame made $20 million this time for making it this far with a miracle season instead of the $6.2 million the Irish pocketed after their pixie dust-filled march to 12-0 in 2012 before Alabama exposed them as a championship fraud.

This wasn’t that Notre Dame team.

“Week 2, it was a rough outlook,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman told me and other reporters after Ohio State barely survived his team for a 34-23 victory after roaring to a 31-7 lead at Mercedes-Benz Stadium before the Irish scored 16 consecutive points to turn a rout into a squeaker.

Freeman’s “Week 2” reference was to Notre Dame going from a 28-point favorite at home against Northern Illinois to a 16-14 embarrassment.

Neverthless, the Irish ran the table after that for an 11-1 mark during the regular season and three victories in the CFP before facing Ohio State. They did so with the explosive running of Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price and quarterback Riley Leonard, but they mostly had an otherwordly defense that finished the regular season tied for fourth in points allowed per game at 15.5 and first in producing turnovers with 32.

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“You go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows,” said Freeman, looking and sounding frustrated after creeping so close to spending his third year at Notre Dame taking the Irish from that Northern Illinois horror to their first national championship since 1988 and their 12th overall.

“The reality is we all had a little bit of doubt, but we all chose to work, and we all chose to trust each other and choose to love each other and be selfless and put the team in front of ourselves. And we did it every week, and every week, and you still had to trust beyond knowing if your work was going to get you the result that you wanted, and they continued to do it. They put this program in a position to play for a national championship.”

That sounded like 2012.

Back then, Brian Kelly also was in his third year at Notre Dame as head football coach, and those Irish were fueled by a defense that was even more powerful than this one.

With Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te’o leading the way at linebacker through 103 tackles and seven interceptions, that 2012 Notre Dame team topped the nation in scoring defense at 10.3 points per game and finished sixth in total defense after allowing 286.83 yards per game.

This also sounded familiar: Beyond Leonard’s efficient legs that produced 906 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns, he was primarily a game manager to give Irish defenders a breather, and that 2012 Notre Dame team got just enough offense to keep winning between Te’o highlights through the freshman arm of Everett Golson and tight end Tyler Eifert racing toward the John Mackey Award with 50 catches for 685 yards and four touchdowns.

Oh, and just like these Irish, that 2012 Notre Dame team got on a miraculous roll during the regular season.

But enough of the similarities.

If you take away a few execution issues throughout the game and questionable coaching decisions down the stretch, these Irish would have completed their fairy tale against Ohio State.

In contrast, regarding that 2012 Notre Dame team, the wicked witch never melted from water, one of the evil stepsisters married the prince and the wolf devoured Little Red Riding Hood, the grandmother and the entire village with the Irish’s 42-14 disaster against Alabama in Miami during the Bowl Championship Series national championship game.

“That was a totally helpless feeling,” Miami (Ohio) University football coach Chuck Martin once told me, and he was Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator during that Alabama game, which featured the Crimson Tide roaring to a 28-0 lead at halftime with zero signs of a pulse from their overwhelmed opponent. “I kept looking down my play sheet throughout that game, just knowing whatever I called was not going to work. They were just so much better than we were.”

While Notre Dame finished that BCS title game with 32 yards rushing against Alabama, the Tide outgained the Irish 529 yards to 302 and controlled the clock for nearly 39 minutes.

You could see that Alabama slaughter coming, but only if you weren’t wearing blinders during a Notre Dame 2012 regular season that wasn’t for those with queasy stomachs.

Yeah, those Irish were ranked No. 1 after going undefeated, but they won by three points over both Brigham Young and Purdue, a touchdown against Michigan, and they survived Stanford in overtime and Pitt in three overtimes.

All of those games were in the friendly confines of Notre Dame Stadium.

These Irish crushed folks home and away after their Northern Illinois meltdown, starting with a 66-7 romp at Purdue. By the time they faced Ohio State, they had defeated seven consecutive ranked teams, and except for beating No. 15 Louisville by a touchdown during the regular season and a 27-24 nailbitter over Penn State in the CFP seminfinals, those other Notre Dame victories were by double digits.

Then came Ohio State, with Notre Dame surging in the fourth quarter, but after the Irish trailed 31-14 inside the final 10 minutes and sat at the Ohio State 9-yard line on fourth down, Freeman opted for a 27-yard field goal attempt instead of doing the more logical thing of going for it.

Consider, too, that Notre Dame’s field goal-kicking operation had been the worst in the country all season.

The ball clanged off the left upright.

“I know it’s still a two-score game, but you have a better probability of getting 14 points than you do 16 points,” Freeman said. “If it was a shorter fourth and goal situation, I probably would have gone for it, but I just felt fourth and nine was not a great chance for us to make that and decided to kick it, and we didn't make it.”

No, the Irish didn’t.

Just like Notre Dame didn’t keep Ohio State from sealing victory with 2:38 left in the game despite the Buckeyes reeling while operating from their 34-yard line on third-and-11.

Instead, as Notre Dame needlessly blitzed during what had been a conservative offensive game plan for Ohio State, Buckeyes quarterback Will Howard completed a 56-yard pass to Jeremiah Smith.

Ohio State kicked a 33-yard field goal.

Game over.

“Yeah, it was do or die. It was that type of down,” Freeman said. “If they run it and they get a 1st down, we've got to get them stopped, and we thought at that moment, the best way to get them stopped is to run zero pressure. We have to have faith at some point that we can make a play.”

They didn’t, but unlike that 2012 Notre Dame team against Alabama, these Irish actually had a chance.